Everyone knew that Halo
3 would be a blockbuster for Microsoft. The game was hyped to no end and
developers at Bungie even acknowledged that their efforts with Halo 2 weren't the greatest and that
Halo 3 would right all of those
wrongs.

Halo 3 lived up to
the hype and recorded first-day sales of over $170 million USD
and garnered nearly universal praise.

"Halo 3 has
become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane Kim of Microsoft's Game
Studios. "Not only is Halo 3 setting
sales records, it's also redefining entertainment... Within the first 20 hours
alone, we've seen more than a million Xbox Live members come online to play Halo 3 - that makes September 25 the
most active Xbox Live gaming day in history."

Microsoft is once again playing the numbers game and today
announced that Halo 3's first-week
sales broke the $300 million USD mark. In addition, retailers are reporting the
sales of the Xbox
360 console roughly doubled during the first week of Halo 3 availability.

Moreover, almost one-third of players on Xbox Live during
launch day were playing Halo 3. Halo 3
players recorded over 3.6 million hours of online play during the first 24
hours of availability and over 40 million hours during the first week of
availability.

"Halo is
truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of Halo 3 is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games
as entertainment and as an art form," said Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
"Halo 3 embodies our vision for
the future of entertainment, where some of the world's greatest creative minds
will deliver a new generation of interactive storytelling."